gitmo

EXCERPTS

Andrew O’Hehir in “Guantanamo: It’s Obama’s disgrace now”

But as details about the conditions of detainment at Guantánamo began to leak, the place began to look not just abusive and nightmarish but also bureaucratic and buffoonish. Many of those who were being held captive in those egregious circumstances were low-level foot-soldiers, or even bystanders, who’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time. ...

snip Read below the fold...

EXCERPTS:

"6 U.S. Cities That Criminalize Homelessness" by Kevin Mathews:

... Rather than finding ways to provide assistance to some of the country’s least fortunate citizens, lawmakers have developed strict regulations to criminalize homeless people’s activities, as if they were sleeping on the sidewalk and panhandling out of malice rather than necessity.

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One of my favorite though admittedly depressing quotes of wisdom:

“Hope was the last temptation of Christ.”

This being Easter it seems relevant. Read below the fold...

Word has it 100 of the 166 inmates of Guantanamo are participating in a hunger strike.

The innocent detainees (“officially” 86 but God only knows how many more) of Guantanamo apparently still think there is a snowball’s chance in hell that if Zero Dark Americans -- especially the deluded “personality over principle” progressives -- really knew the truth of what had and has been happening to them before and during their unending detainments, the colossal abuses they have had to endure (and especially lately that they are enduring) not to mention their colossal and ever escalating despair after 11 LONG YEARS of incarceration without due process -- waiting, waiting, waiting for a not slow-go but really NO-go Obama-Godot, then those Zero Dark Americans would actually give a serious shit. Read below the fold...

First a bit of positive news from Andy Worthington, Brit investigative journalist and champion of due process for the Gitmo detainees and author of The Guantanamo Files. (Worthington was a featured speaker in a World Can’t Wait forum on Sunday in NYC.) If former President George W. Bush travels outside the borders of the United States to a foreign country, upon his arrival there is a good chance he immediately will be arrested for war crimes, particularly the perpetration of TORTURE! This is why George Bush canceled a recent trip to Switzerland. Read below the fold...

This is a re-post from 1-10-11. Almost a year ago. With the ever-increassing militarization of our government Gitmo as of this month has become all the more profoundly entrenched and revitalized. Conveniently useful now for internment of our own most heroic citizens of conscience who can (and will) be declared "belligerent" on the "say so" of someone in the administration and then efficiently and unconstitutionally (but that doesn't matter to the President and the vast majority of Congress) "disappeared" there (or elsewhere) forever without right and access to legal support and protection.

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Congress is voting today on the war in Afghanistan.

Call Congress today and urge your Representative to vote to cut off funding for the Afghanistan War. Support the Lee amendment as the strongest against the war.

You can call toll-free, 1-888-231-9276, thanks to the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Demand an amendment be adopted striking Section 1034, "Affirmation of Armed
Conflict with Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Associated Forces," completely from the bill.

Demand a serious debate about the Afghanistan War and tell your representative
to vote to immediately end funding for the war and occupation. Read below the fold...

John Grant has a wry, clear way of framing the moral vacuum that is America and its ferocious military status quo that steamrolls ever onward, contrary to all logic, justice and empathy.

Grant contends that the U.S.'s Middle East influence has profoundly waned, as opposed to Turkey’s and Iran’s, despite “hundreds of thousands of soldiers and billions of dollars of equipment and bases." “And a lot of face to save,” he adds. The 2003 U.S. Iraq invasion and occupation was what “boosted” Iran to strong regional influence he emphasizes.

John Grant on George W. Bush's reflection on his war (or lack of reflection): Read below the fold...

Obama promised to close Gitmo within his first year. He even signed an Executive Order. Revelations from Barbara Quintiliano and Andy Worthington say it all so well, repellant as these Gitmo circumstances are: "We" are so on the wrong side of history:

Guantánamo mon amour
By Barbara Quintiliano

Remember the old adage about the best laid plans of mice and men? Or the one about the road to a certain fiery destination being paved with good intentions? Well, here is a stunning example furnished by our country's recent history:

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Finally, a judge who remembers the Constitution. I really hope this works for Ghailani and his defense.
Read below the fold...

If you can figure out what to say about this, let me know. Read below the fold...

So via Pat Lang, this deliciously bad translation: Read below the fold...

What's your hurry? Can't you wait another year?

H/T Talkleft. Another group of naifs, insufficiently sophisticated to understand why Gitmo will take a year to close.

Or maybe they are also part of: Read below the fold...

Seventeen that can be released immediately.

Please read the letter attachment. Apparently, there are 17 "guests" there which all parties (even the Bush admin) agree should be released. Read below the fold...